HS Girl Breaks Leg, Crawls to Finish Line If you haven't heard this story – or seen the accompanying video – you've gotta check it out. From ESPN.com:

It has been almost two weeks since Claire Markwardt's horrific fall in the final stretch of the Ohio state high school cross country championship, and yet, the Berkshire High School senior has seen the video only once.

...At the 1- and 2-mile markers, Markwardt was on a personal-best pace. Then, as she entered the stadium at Columbus' Scioto Downs, with about 400 meters to go, she heard her left leg crack.

Sunday's Philadelphia Marathon will host a record 16,000 runners. (Including yours truly!) That's a 30 percent boost over last year. "For the first time in its 14-year history, the marathon is sold out," said Janis Pierce, deputy city representative, at a news conference.

Pastor Jamie Firzlaff has been marrying couples in Las Vegas for seven years at A Special Memory Wedding Chapel. On Dec. 2, she'll trade in her robe for running shorts and join 50 couples at the starting line of the Las Vegas Marathon. At the five-mile mark, they'll all stop for a brief ceremony.

No word on whether race organizers will offer marital aid stations along the course.

Bon Jovi's Political Future in Question; Awesomeness Is Not So I get Google Alerts every day for articles and blog posts that include the word "runner" or "running." More often than not, the links take me to items that have absolutely nothing to do with running as we know and love it – i.e., the sport, the act of locomotion.

Instead, I wade through a lot of dreck. Like this:

Bon Jovi could be planning one day to run [ED: Hey, look! It's the word run!] for governor of New Jersey. That's why he's keeping his house in Red Bank, even though he and his wife, Dorothea, and their four kids have moved to SoHo. That's why he performs regularly at fund-raisers for Democrats like Al Gore and John Kerry. And that's why he hired p.r. guru Ken Sunshine, who was once the chief of staff for ex-Mayor David Dinkins. "Jon has been approached many times about running for office," said Sunshine, who denied the rocker has any political plans.

(This tidbit btw, is from the New York Post's Page Six gossip column, which also notes that Lance Armstrong and Ashley Olsen "are strictly friends," according to Lance. What a scoop!)

Of course, without dreck like this, I wouldn't have an excuse to post a video of "Livin' on a Prayer."